"Blood Drawing Technique?" Mo Hua was momentarily stunned before asking Bai Zixi, "Is the Blood Drawing Technique difficult to learn?"
Bai Zixi shook her head, "It's not difficult to learn, but it's challenging to use."
"The Blood Drawing Technique is a simplified form of Spiritual Awareness Manipulation, allowing for the pulling of demonic blood with one's spiritual awareness. This ability is typical of cultivators in the Foundation Building stage. Qi-cultivation practitioners can barely use it; they cannot do so from a distance, and it consumes a lot of spiritual awareness," Bai Zixi explained.
If it were merely a matter of large spiritual awareness consumption, Mo Hua would not be afraid. After all, his spiritual root and body refining skills weren't great; his only strength was in his spiritual awareness.
Mo Hua looked at Bai Zixi with hopeful, dark, and sparkling eyes.
Understanding his expression, Bai Zixi sighed lightly and pulled a book out of her phoenix-patterned storage bag.
The cover of the book was titled "Blood Drawing Technique."
"Drawing blood like this is quite taxing and greatly drains one's spiritual awareness. Most cultivators won't learn it. Be careful on your own," Bai Zixi warned.
"Okay!" Mo Hua replied cheerfully.
The jadeite cake was sweet, and the pear blossom brew was refreshingly sweet. Mixed together, they created a rich fragrance.
"My mother just made these. Try some," Mo Hua offered.
Bai Zixi paused, her lips curving slightly upwards, not hesitating to indulge. She delicately picked up a piece of jadeite cake and nibbled on it.
Perhaps it was the taste, but her bright eyes slightly narrowed in pleasure.
Bai Zisheng, smelling the aroma, suddenly sat up, sniffing a few times and looking towards Mo Hua:
"Where's mine?"
"Aren't you having a headache?"
"It's gone now," Bai Zisheng declared.
"You should rest more."
"I'll rest after I eat."
Shaking his head, Mo Hua also took out a plate of beef for him.
"This is cooked with spicy seasoning; it's even spicier."
Bai Zisheng grabbed a few slices of beef, stuffing them into his mouth, and immediately exclaimed, "It's so spicy!"
After chewing a few bites, he nodded, "It's tasty!"
While enjoying the spiciness and the aroma, Bai Zisheng quickly finished the plate of beef and then asked:
"What were you going to ask?"
"I've asked already."
"I can't just eat your food for free. Think of something else to ask!" Bai Zisheng insisted.
Mo Hua thought for a moment and then asked:
"The Blood Drawing Technique is a simplified version of Spiritual Awareness Manipulation... What exactly is Spiritual Awareness Manipulation?"
"You don't know about Spiritual Awareness Manipulation? Every cultivator in the Foundation Building stage knows it," Bai Zisheng questioned.
"It's normal for a Qi-cultivation practitioner like me not to know, right?" Mo Hua stated.
Bai Zisheng found no words to rebut and nodded, explaining:
"Spiritual Awareness Manipulation means using one's spiritual awareness to remotely control objects, such as these small stone tables and stools. From a distance, you could move them using your spiritual awareness."
"That doesn't sound like much..."
"How could it not be?" Bai Zisheng huffed, "Controlling these tables and stools might be trivial, but think about controlling swords! Imagine, with a flick of your spiritual intent, a sword flies through the air and strikes down an enemy miles away! Isn't that amazing?"
"Really, miles?"
Bai Zisheng looked incredulous, "Are you just being contrarian?"
"A cultivator in the Foundation Building stage can't project their spiritual awareness for miles," Mo Hua realistically asserted.
Bai Zisheng reluctantly admitted, "True... managing ten or a hundred miles would be impressive."
Mo Hua looked vindicated.
"Precision in cultivation is crucial; a slight deviation can lead to a great error. If you don't calculate properly in a duel, it could cost you your life," Mo Hua sternly said.
Bai Zisheng: "…"
"Besides, your claim of controlling a sword for miles is nearly ten to a hundred times off from the reality. With such a large error, if you really had to act, you'd surely be doomed!" Mo Hua added.
Bai Zisheng helplessly replied, "Aren't you excited about Spiritual Awareness Manipulation of swords?"
"Swords are expensive, and I can't afford them. What's the use of being excited..." Mo Hua pragmatically stated.
Bai Zisheng: "
…"
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then said to Bai Zisheng, "You're a body cultivator, right?"
"Yes…"
"Do body cultivators also control swords?"
"Generally... not."
"You can't control swords either, so what are you excited about?" Mo Hua questioned.
Bai Zisheng took a deep breath, feeling a sense of powerlessness wash over him.
He lay down on the ground, facing Mo Hua earnestly:
"Mo Hua, one day, someone in this world will surely be talked to death by you!"
Mo Hua looked puzzled, "How could that be? After all, we're cultivators with resilient Dao hearts. How could anyone be killed just by a few words?"
"Don't worry, there definitely will be!"
Bai Zisheng declared confidently.
After parting with the Bai siblings, Mo Hua returned home and began to learn the Blood Drawing Technique.
The Blood Drawing Technique wasn't exactly a spell, nor could it truly be considered a secret technique. Instead, it resembled other cultivation crafts like herb gathering, mining, or spiritual plant cultivation.
Some cultivators relied on this craft to extract fresh demonic blood, selling it to businesses or other cultivators in need of demonic blood.
The process of drawing blood wasn't difficult, but it was taxing on one's spiritual awareness and quite laborious.
Cultivators who practiced blood drawing were akin to physical cultivators who did manual labor at the Spiritual Transport Docks, except these physical cultivators used their physical strength to transport goods, while blood drawing used spiritual awareness to manipulate demonic blood.
Physical strength recovers quickly, but spiritual awareness does not, hence cultivators could only extract a limited amount of demonic blood each day, yielding low profits. At least near Tongxian City, there weren't many cultivators who knew the Blood Drawing Technique.
Mo Hua speculated that some cultivators from other regions might be able to extract large amounts of demonic blood and make a living off the Blood Drawing Technique, otherwise, given its rarity, the spirit ink used by array masters would be much more expensive.
But this was just a guess, as Mo Hua's experience in the cultivation world was limited, and he couldn't be sure.
The Blood Drawing Technique wasn't difficult to learn; Mo Hua was able to master it after reading the instructions a few times as described in the book.
As Bai Zixi mentioned, the Blood Drawing Technique was a simplified version of Spiritual Awareness Manipulation, but this type of manipulation couldn't be done from afar. It required one's palm to be in contact with the demonic beast's fur, sensing the flow of demonic blood before using spiritual awareness to extract the blood from the beast's blood vessels.
There were no live or recently deceased demonic beasts in Tongxian City for Mo Hua to practice the Blood Drawing Technique on.
Mo Hua had to ask Mo Shan to cut a piece of wild ox demon's fur, then pour water on it and use his spiritual awareness to manipulate the water flow over the fur.
Although this was quite different from the actual Blood Drawing Technique, it was better than nothing.
After practicing a few times, Mo Hua grasped the method.
However, the biggest problem was that although he had learned the Blood Drawing Technique, there were no demonic beasts for Mo Hua to extract demonic blood from.
Without demonic blood, he couldn't mix the spirit ink. The shortage of spirit ink remained unsolved.
Mo Hua thought for a few days and finally came up with one solution:
Go into the mountains and hunt demons!
He planned to enter the vast and treacherous Dahei Mountain, hunt demonic beasts, and while their blood was still fresh and uncoagulated, extract the vital essence from their blood vessels.
This was the only way to steadily and massively obtain demonic blood.
Mo Hua looked up, his gaze traveling beyond the houses and streets of Tongxian City, fixating on the dark and profound Dahei Mountain in the distance.
The mountain was perilous, filled with deadly miasma, shrouded in clouds and fog, and permeated with demonic energy.
It was the dwelling place of formidable demonic creatures and had been the site where countless demon hunters from Tongxian City had both made their living and met their ends over thousands of years...